It’s a point of great pride to a teacher when a student brings home
first prize in a national contest showcasing the talents the teacher has
cultivated. Southwest Graphic Arts instructor Patsy Fanche, can
definitely be proud of the six students who won, placed or showed in the
National Graphic Design Contest.

The contest was sponsored by Engineering Education Service Center (EESC).
EESC is a support organization that promotes interest in engineering for
kindergarten through college, through consulting, publications and
presentations. Posters are one of the tools they use, and their annual
poster contest is a means of generating fresh, creative ideas to use in
their mission. In this year’s contest, Southwest students won first
place, plus eight more of the 26 total awards.

The poster contest was a class assignment, with 12 students submitting
16 entries – “and nine of them were winners,” said Fancher. “I’m very
proud of them. It says a lot about the caliber of our students’ work
when more than a third of the winners were from Southwest.”

Top winner Pamela McFarland’s entries (she also won a third place)
barely made it to the contest – “I had to overnight the disk the night
before Thanksgiving to beat the deadline.” McFarland’s winning entry was
in the Women in Engineering category, and she also won a third place, in
the Engineering Technology category.

Nelda Peterson won a third place for the Women in Technology category
and an honorable mention for her entry in Engineering Technology.
Honorable mentions were captured by Marion Mercado, Kristine Cech and
Justin Shaw, and Brian Ganute placed as a finalist.

Most of the students already have practical workplace experience, and
all are planning careers in the graphic arts field. Their class, Print
Production II, is an advanced course and an elective in both associate
of applied science degree programs in graphic arts. “Successful
completion of either program requires highly honed skills and gives
students a wide choice of careers, plus a big boost along a graphic
design career path,” said Fancher.

Fancher is well qualified to prepare students for graphic arts careers.
She has three undergraduate degrees in the areas of fine arts,
advertising, commercial art and photography, and a master’s in computer
graphics from Memphis College of Art, where she was an adjunct
instructor for nine years. She was a partner in the first print graphics
service bureau in Memphis in the early days of computer-based graphic
design and print production, and did consultant work for promotional
campaigns with a cross section of Memphis businesses and organizations,
including FedEx, Smith & Nephew, and the Pink Palace and Ornamental
Metal museums.

Southwest poster winners check out their winning entries on the EESC web
site. From left, Brian Ganote, finalist; Justin Shaw, honorable mention
in the Engineering Technology category; Nelda Peterson, third place in
the Women in Engineering category and honorable mention in the
Engineering Technology category Pam McFarland, first place in the Women
in Engineering category and third place in the Engineering Technology
category; Marion Mercado, honorable mention in the Engineering
Technology category; Kris Cech, honorable mention in the Engineering
Technology category. Winning posters can be viewed on the Engineering
Education Service Center web site at
http://www.engineeringedu.com/.